Sky secure Champion's League rights

Sky and ITV have won the television rights to cover Champions League football for 2003-06 - and it means every single match in…

Sky and ITV have won the television rights to cover Champions League football for 2003-06 - and it means every single match in the competition will be available live to viewers on British terrestrial or satellite digital television.

The announcement does however only refer to British television and therefore Irish Champion's League coverage is expected to remain with TV3, though negotiations are yet to begin.

Sky will mark their debut in covering the competition by broadcasting 14 Champions League matches live each week on their digital platform and ITV will show two on Tuesday evenings.

There will also be highlights on ITV on Tuesdays and Sky on Wednesdays.

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Vic Wakeling, managing director of Sky Sports, said: "The Champions League has broadened the horizons of football fans - far beyond the game's traditional and local base - and this is a dream offering, made possible only by the unique interactive capacity of Sky digital.

"Every single game played in the competition will now be seen live in the UK and, as fans ourselves, we are excited at the prospect of being involved in this new era of Champions League coverage."

ITV - the current UK rights holder - will transmit two British live matches each Tuesday night, one on ITV1 and the other on ITV2, with Sky able to show the other games live that evening.

The satellite broadcaster will then have all Wednesday night games available on an exclusive basis. Both broadcasters will show the final.

The British rights are the first to be announced by UEFA, and mean disappointment for the BBC who had attempted to negotiate a way around the problem of the complex sponsorship deal which oblige broadcasters to show adverts.

UEFA are understood to be delighted with the deal, which is worth stg£80million-a-year compared to the stg£60million-a-year current agreement.

Sky will pay considerably more than ITV as they have so many more matches. Both companies will show promotional "magazine" programmes and a UEFA statement said the successful bids were based on "an assessment of the overall revenues to European football, the commercial opportunities offered and the promotion of the competition available through the combination of free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasting".

ITV controller of sport Brian Barwick said: "We are delighted to retain our association with a competition ITV have been involved with from the very first kick of the very first game 10 years ago.

"To have exclusive terrestrial rights to the world's premier club competition for another three years underlines our continuing commitment to top class sport."

PA